Disclaimer: Yet again, I own nothing.

"Impressive," Yoritomo said with a grin as he and Tenten bounced back from each other, the kunoichi's left hand bleeding profusely from where she'd used it to deflect his sword. It was all done with a reason, because the woman had procured a kunai and used it to slash him across the chest. Thankfully the blow had skidded off his armor, being as hastily aimed as it was, and he wasn't hurt. "However, quite useless my dear."

"What do you get out of attacking me?" Tenten demanded.

The other fighter smiled. "Nothing much. I'm just out to break the will of that damn woman."

"Hinata-chan?"

Yoritomo nodded, making the kunoichi snarl. "Bastard." The lord shrugged, sinking into a low stance, holding the edge of his blade up by his ear, his left hand resting gently along the blade. Tenten blinked as she instantly saw what kind of attack would be heading her way. It would be a straight on stab, probably at high speed.

Yoritomo lunged, moving faster than Tenten had expected. She still had enough time to dodge, but she was exhausted from the fight with Aisha, having used up most of her chakra with the Kage Bunshin and Senbonzakura techniques. Her mind could process what was happening to her, but her body just didn't have the will to respond.

"Gatotsu!"

'Damn! No time!'

Something big and heavy knocked her away, followed closely by the ring of clashing metal. Yoritomo stumbled backwards, barely managing to keep a grip on his katana as he ran into what was essentially a brick wall. Both combatants blinked when they saw who it was.

"Who're…"

Yoritomo interrupted Tenten. "YOU!"

Tenten's savior was a tall, imposing man with long gray hair, held in check by a ponytail. A horizontal scar bisected his face, crossing just below the most intense gray eyes the kunoichi had ever seen. He was clad in simple burlap but held himself in a way that seemed more noble to Tenten than even the Hokage herself. The naked blade of a kodachi was in his hand, the keen waves of the temper line glowing white in the bright fires of the surrounding huts.

The intense eyes swept over Tenten, who shuddered as killing intent, cold and unadulterated, slammed down on her. "Are you alright shinobi?" The man demanded no too politely. It was all the kunoichi could do to not snap back at him. Eyes flashing, she nodded mutely. "Good. Can't say Naruto would be too impressed with me if I let a comrade of his die."

Understanding suddenly clicked in the woman's mind. "That means you're this 'Ren' character Naruto was going on about?" Before Ren could answer, a blur appeared behind him, a silver streak darting through the air. "Look out!" Ren was moving before the words had even left her mouth. The man spun on his heel, wheeling away from the rushing blade, his own clashing with it, keeping it from coming around to bisect him.

A deft flick of the foot and Fukayama Yoritomo was flying rather ungracefully past Tenten to the ground. He recovered fast, rolling to his feet the moment his body landed. Yoritomo stood, whirled, and locked blades with Ren again. For a second, the only sound was the grating of metal blades. Killing intent soaked the air like a wet sponge. Ren's eyes were cold and hard, like chips of slate. Yoritomo's were blazing with dark fire, his teeth bared and gritted.

"You're still alive?" Yoritomo asked harshly, muscles straining to dislodge the larger man. Yoritomo was built more for speed while Ren's burly arm muscles showed that he was built for a balance of speed and power. "You're supposed to be dead!"

Ren chuckled, though his eyes didn't mimic the mirth. They remained icy cold. "As if I could just roll over and die with people like you in power here," he retorted, suddenly bouncing back with a speed that belied his rather hefty size. Yoritomo stumbled, giving the other samurai the opening he needed to flick his kodachi in and open a small wound on the lord's shoulder, the blade finding a notch in the other man's armor. The injured man hissed as a dark splotch spread over his clothes. "And you're still a lousy swordsman."

"Wait. Ren-san," Tenten asked as she bound her hand with some bandages she had in her pouch, "you know him?"

"Yeah. Unfortunately."

"So who are you?"

Ren smirked and drew himself upright. Tenten blinked as she suddenly thought that he was clothed in the noble finery that Yoritomo wore. "Me?" he asked. "I'm the lord of Lahan!"

Rai stumbled, blood spilling from his lips as Neji picked himself up off the ground, one shoulder bleeding profusely, his long hair hanging free. The lightning-nin tried to raise a hand to make seals, but his hand refused to move. He hacked again, red flecking the ground between the two shinobi. "What…did…you…do!?" The blond demanded, blood bursting from his mouth as he spoke, making him wheeze.

Neji winced as his shoulder gave a particularly nasty throb. He tried to ignore the way his vision wavered or how ominous the dripping of blood from his fingertips felt. It was really a miracle that Neji had pulled off what he had. After shrinking his Juken's territory and allowing the speedy nin to get in close, Neji had reacted the moment the other shinobi had struck. He hadn't moved fast enough, though, taking the blow that opened the wound in his shoulder, but trade-off had been a nasty Juken blow to Rai's heart, disrupting its rhythm and opening a small tear in the muscle, allowing blood to spill out.

In short, Rai was dying slowly as blood filled his chest cavity, putting pressure on his heart and lungs. The end effect was similar to crucifixion, with Rai slowly suffocating on his own body fluids.

"I tore your heart," Neji answered simply, feeling proud of himself that he managed to get out a coherent sentence. It felt like he could pass out at any time.

Rai wheezed something that sounded like 'bastard'. When his mouth moved again, blood spilled out like water, but Neji caught the movement. He was asking the name of the technique.

"Ryuusei…Juken." He answered with a small smirk. "Since you were too fast for a normal Juken territory, I had to shrink it so I could respond when you were committed to the attack, which you don't do until you're mere seconds away. I countered it by making my entire body a Juken territory and allowed the attack to flow by. Like water." He scowled at his shoulder. "Apparently it still needs work."

Rai lurched, blood exploding from his mouth, then his eyes rolled back and he pitched forward, dead before he hit the ground. Neji slumped, exhaustion sweeping over him, before he turned and stumbled away, leaving Rai lying in the street, illuminated by the burning village.

On the peak of the pass that led from the village into the mountains, Naruto and Itachi quit their walking, stopping in the deeply shadowed mouth of the mountain. The stoic Uchiha turned and gazed back out at the village below, Sharingan picking up details of the Haruno girl's battle with one of the missing-nin. It was the only one still going, if you discounted the one between the two lords.

Naruto glared at the traitor's back, wanting nothing more to shove a Rasengan through his gut, but knowing that the Uchiha wouldn't expose his back unless he was absolutely sure that he could counter whatever Naruto could do to him. Before the blond could react or look away, Itachi faced him and the jounin found himself staring into…

A perfectly normal set of eyes.

Naruto, whose hand had been half way to his kunai holster, relaxed, puzzling over why the Akatsuki member had allowed himself to deactivate his precious kekkei genkai. "What's this all about?" The blond demanded roughly, his impatience winning over his control, forcing him to speak. "Why'd you call me out?"

Itachi didn't respond immediately, instead choosing to sit down on the ground and stare out at Lahan as it burned. It held a certain macabre attraction to both of the men. "Naruto-kun," the Uchiha finally said after a moment of silence, "have you ever regretted a decision you made?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto demanded, hand drifting to his holster again. Itachi was probably aware of the motion, but instead of trying to stop it, he gestured to the ground beside him, inviting Naruto to sit.

When the jounin didn't move, Itachi snorted softly. "You're more paranoid than the fools on the council. I came to talk, as I said before."

"I don't trust you any further than I can throw you." Nevertheless, some compulsion drove the Jinchuuriki to the ground beside the other missing-nin.

"I'm in pain, Naruto-kun," Itachi replied, disregarding the snide remark.

"Mangenkyou finally getting to you?" The other asked with a vindictive snort. "Can't say you don't deserve it." Both men knew about the downside to the Mangenkyou. How it slowly ate away at the users eyesight until they were blind. Some would call it horrible, but to a shinobi with enough training, it would be no great handicap. After all, most of a shinobi's work was done where there was no way to see anything.

Itachi's head shook. "No. Not physical pain," he said, one painted finger tapping himself over his heart. "No, I'm in terrible emotional pain."

"Growing a conscience?" Naruto asked sarcastically. When was this bastard going to get to the point? "Can't sleep with the ghosts of your clan haunting your nightmares?"

The Uchiha missing-nin snorted again. "The Uchiha Clan. I guess that's where this all begins." Dark eyes regarded the blond. "Tell me, Naruto-kun, do you know why I slaughtered my clan that night?"

"Cause you're a cruel and heartless bastard?"

"Hardly. Naruto-kun, what would you do in my shoes I wonder?" Itachi asked, surging ahead before Naruto could respond. "Called a prodigy from the time you were five. Mastering your clan's bloodline at an extraordinary age, then being sent out on missions to kill before you're even ten years old. Seeing all that death and destruction that no child should. Tell me, Naruto-kun, what would it do to you?"

Naruto surprised himself by almost feeling sorry for the bastard beside him. "It would fuck me up something terrible, I guess," he answered.

The Uchiha made a noise that almost sounded like a laugh. "It would fuck you up? I suppose that's one way to put it. Would you want to fight again after seeing all that?" Dark eyes looked straight into Naruto's blue ones. The blond shivered as Itachi seemed to stare into the depths of his soul. "Would you want your friends and family to see that? To see what you've seen and do what you've done?"

"No, of course not. Why are you asking me this?"

Itachi's gaze returned to the village below. "Because that's exactly what I went through," he murmured, profile lit by a bright explosion from down below as the Swamp of the Underworld below caught fire. The heat and concussion reached them a second later, a dull drumbeat to punctuate Itachi's statement. "I didn't want anyone to go through that, so I threw myself into defending the village, putting its peace and tranquility before everyone and everything in my life."

"Bullshit!" Naruto shouted, shooting to his feet. "You slaughtered your whole goddamn family!"

"Sit, Naruto-kun." There was a soft note of command in the Uchiha's voice. Naruto found himself back on the ground. "Much like you would throw away the village to save a friend, I threw away my family to save the village."

The blond still had his doubts, but something in Itachi's tone made Naruto wonder if he was really telling the truth. Itachi continued. "You see, Naruto-kun, I wanted nothing more than peace for Konohagakure. I still want nothing more. The reason I slaughtered my clan was because I was ordered to."

Electricity jumped up Naruto's spine, making him sit bolt upright. He wanted to say something, but reigned himself in. "I was ordered to by the Sandaime Hokage himself."

An image of the kindly old man that Naruto had admired as an idol and loved like a grandfather flashed across his thoughts. "You're…lying!" He bellowed. "You have to be! Old man Sandaime wouldn't do anything like that!"

"He valued the safety of the village just as I did," Itachi answered calmly. "It was not a decision he made lightly, I can assure you of that."

"But why?"

"Because. My clan was planning a coup de tat of Konoha, the fruits of a bitter resentment that my clan has held against the Shodai Hokage since the dawn of the village's history. It's an old hatred, and something I won't put you to sleep with. However, you do need to know that it ended with my clan being segregated from the rest of the village."

"Yeah right," Naruto scoffed. "You guys were revered! Hell, even I can remember how much everyone respected the Uchiha!"

"Only by the populace," Itachi countered. "To the brass, we were a liability, a dangerous tumor that could erupt and destroy the village's peace at any time. To counter that, they decided to plant a spy within the Uchiha ranks to monitor the village and report back on the goings-on of the clan. Do you have any idea who that spy was, Naruto-kun?"

"You?"

"Exactly. The day after I killed my clan, the coup would have taken place, plunging our village into civil war. I loved my family, Sasuke most of all, but I also loved Konoha and I couldn't just let it go to hell. Do you see my dilemma, Naruto-kun? On one hand, I would have to butcher everyone I held dear to me. On the other, the slaughter would be so much greater if the civil war were to have begun." Itachi's eyes darkened. "So, that night, I waited until nightfall, then began to kill every member of the Uchiha clan. One by one, I invaded their houses, killed everyone inside, then moved on. Block by block, until every last Uchiha was dead. Except for one."

"Sasuke," Naruto breathed.

Itachi nodded. "He was late getting home from the Academy that night, and I had hoped to be long gone by the time he arrived. However, he saw me, standing over the corpses of our mother and father, my katana still wet with their blood. So, to give him a reason to live, I turned the affection he held for me to bitter hatred. Naruto-kun, my orders were to kill every Uchiha."

"So why leave Sasuke alive?" Naruto asked, curiosity getting the better of him. It was interesting to hear a second side to the infamous Uchiha Massacre, even if it was probably a lie.

"I couldn't kill my heart. I couldn't bring myself to kill my only brother, the only one in that wretched nest of vipers I had any affection for after learning about the plans for the coup. My own father was the ringleader!" For the first time, Itachi seemed angry, eyes flashing crimson briefly before he got himself under control. The Uchiha lapsed into a brooding silence. He spoke an instant before Naruto could. "Do you see the source of my pain now, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto shook his head.

"On one hand, I cannot bring myself to kill Sasuke. On the other, I cannot allow that same brother to destroy the village, which I have continued to protect from afar." Itachi's eyes found Naruto, Sharingan flaring to life. "Then there is you, Uzumaki Naruto. You are willing to kill Sasuke if you meet him again." Before Naruto could process what happened, Itachi lunged, picking the jounin off his feet and slamming him into the hard granite wall of the pass hard enough to crack it. "Haven't I just said that I cannot allow Sasuke to die? That I cared too much for him? So, Uzumaki Naruto. Tell me. What should I do now? Why should I not kill you to save Sasuke from dying by your hand?"

Some part of Naruto managed to notice a change in Itachi's voice. He sounded lost. He was really asking Naruto for advice. He wanted to know where to go from here. The blond could only speculate at what the Uchiha must be going through. It was either allow Sasuke to destroy Konoha, or kill Sasuke, the only person Itachi had ever cared for. It was a dilemma that brought Itachi's most basic instincts into conflict with each other. Would he allow his brother to butcher the village? Or would he kill his brother to save them?

"Sasuke…" Naruto trailed off, unwilling to meet the elder Uchiha's eyes, both for practical reasons and that he simply couldn't. "Itachi," the use of the other man's name made the death grip on his shirt slacken a bit, "the Sasuke we both knew and loved is dead." Somehow, admitting that aloud to Sasuke's brother made it all the harder for Naruto to bear. He felt tears welling in his eyes as he forced himself to continue, though to be fair, while he'd been spouting off this 'I have to kill Sasuke' stuff, he'd sort of not believed it himself. To speak it now was committing himself to the act. In Naruto's mind, once he said to Itachi that Sasuke was beyond rescue, then there was no going back. "Orochimaru killed him the moment he put that Cursed Seal of Heaven on Sasuke's neck."

The grip holding Naruto up vanished abruptly, allowing the blond to slide to the ground. "So. You're telling me that I should kill my heart one last time and finish the job I started that fateful night?" Itachi asked, lilting voice carrying an undercurrent of sorrow and anger. "Is that it?" The Sharingan glared down from on high. At that instant, Naruto saw why Itachi was one of the most feared geniuses ever produced by a clan. He seemed twenty feet high, with eyes like the coals of Hell. The blond, despite his power and the back up of his tenant, found his hand shaking involuntarily on the ground beside him.

"Itachi," Naruto grunted as he clambered to his feet, brushing himself off. "I don't like it any more than you do. But Sasuke is gone. What's in his place is more like Orochimaru than Sasuke." Cerulean eyes glared into violently red Sharingan. "Have you seen Sasuke? I mean, have you seen him since he went to the snake bastard?"

It was faint, but Naruto saw the shake of the head.

"Well, he's nothing like you remember. He's sadistic, power hungry, blood thirsty, and probably more insane than you are!"

"You think I'm insane?" Itachi whispered dangerously.

"Hell yeah!" Naruto shot back. "How insane do you have to be to invent a story like yours! 'Ordered by the Sandaime'? Give me a fucking break! He would never…" A vice-like hand clamped over his mouth, pinning him to the wall again, a knife at his throat. Naruto's eyes went wide. He hadn't even seen the attack coming, much less sensed it.

"Now I see why the pink kunoichi is always smacking you around," Itachi said, eyes glinting dangerously, as if he wanted nothing more than to draw that kunai across Naruto's throat. "You have this innate ability to piss people off. However," the kunai vanished back into the folds of the Akatsuki cloak and reappeared with a small scroll, "here, take this. It's a handwritten missive from me directly to the two bastards that Tsunade calls advisors. They'll corroborate my story."

The scroll was forced into Naruto's waist pouches, then the hand vanished from the blonde's mouth, allowing him to speak again. The jounin didn't do anything aside from massage his jaw, blue eyes calculating, as he tried to find away to kill Itachi right then and there.

Itachi turned to leave. He stopped and tossed one glare back at the blond jounin. "I don't believe for a second that Sasuke is beyond rescue. And you are wrong about the Sandaime. He put the village first. If that meant slaughtering a clan to save collectively greater lives of the village, then he would have done it. He did do it." The Uchiha turned again. "I'm going to find Sasuke and observe him for a while. If he is as you say, then I shall come before you again. If he is not as you say, then I shall return to you. And we, Uzumaki Naruto, shall fight to the death."

The shadows flickered and Itachi was gone.

Despite himself, Naruto found himself shivering. He didn't know if he could beat the rogue Uchiha by himself, even with the Kyuubi. After all, that thrice-damned Sharingan had the ability to suppress the Kyuubi's youki. If it came down to it, Naruto might be the one who would die. Then again, Naruto was sure that Sasuke, the Sasuke he knew, was dead. Either way, the jounin would be seeing Uchiha Itachi again.

He pulled out the small scroll that Itachi had forced on him. He didn't know if the story Itachi had told him was true, but if the two old crones from Konoha were in on it, they wouldn't refuse a request from their accomplice right?

'Don't be so sure, brat,' the Kyuubi muttered from its place inside him as Naruto vaulted for the burning town below.

Sakura and Enishi slammed together, the force of their hit making the swamp beneath them roil and writhe, as if a monster was churning the depths. Both were hit in the jaw, Sakura managing to bite back a cry as she felt her jaw snap. Even before she'd landed, she'd reset the bone and was in the process of healing it. To continue fixing her wounds like she was was taxing her chakra to its limit and she didn't know for how much longer she would be able to keep it up.

'I have to end this soon,' Sakura thought desperately, gingerly touching her throbbing jaw. Something told her she would be a walking bruise by the end of the night. 'But how do I do it if he can repair his armor just like that?' The hut she was on lurched violently beneath her, almost sending the kunoichi into the sticky purple mess before she managed to recover.

"Don't fall, little girl," Enishi called with a mocking sing-song voice. The hut he stood on wasn't much better off, but at least the foundation was eroding out from underneath him. Sakura glared at him but otherwise didn't respond. Doing so would've only encouraged him. The kunoichi lost herself in throwing strategy after strategy around her head, each more likely than the last. No matter how many times she bashed his armor to pieces, he could and would only reform her, keeping her on the defensive.

"Here I come!"

The rocky behemoth launched himself into the sky with more ease and grace than Sakura ever thought possible. The hut she was standing on blew itself to pieces as the heavy monstrosity slammed to earth. The golem's face was disdainful. "Missed," he muttered to himself. Standing on another rooftop was Sakura, perspiring like a pig and breathing heavily. She'd used a great deal of her remaining chakra to get around that hit.

Reluctantly, she pulled a soldier pill out of her pouch and gulped it down, a heady rush of chakra flooding her like someone had opened a floodgate within her. She stood, all signs of exhaustion gone and chakra back to where it belonged. Sakura didn't like to use soldier pills. She thought of them like a drug. If she used them too much, she would become dependant, like Kiba, and that was something that she and every other shinobi she knew tried to avoid.

"Oh? Ready for round two?" Enishi asked with a grin. He lunged at her again. Sakura's emerald eyes flashed as she dug frantically in her pouch again. She flung a kunai at the behemoth coming at her like a freight train. The knife glanced uselessly off his hard rocky skin, but the explosive tag on the hilt wasn't meant for him either. As the weapon landed in the sticky smelly goo below, the tag detonated.

With an ear-shattering roar and a blinding flash, the whole swamp caught fire, the concussion catching Enishi in mid leap, throwing him into the sky and allowing him to fall towards the scorching hell below. His massive fingers twisted together, there was a tremendous puff of smoke, then Enishi was flying again, the Kage Bunshin he had made tumbling into the flaming liquid.

"Little WHORE!" he shouted, enraged. His ears were ringing, he was half blind, and the hut he stood on didn't feel entirely stable to him. His armor was also deeply fractured and he could feel it rubbing against injured and cut skin, both old and brand new. Sakura only grinned at him, making the last of the four missing-nin see red. He went to leap at her, but lurched like he'd been hamstrung and tipped into the swamp, yelling angrily as he sank out of sight in the burning conflagration.

Sakura blinked. Just who had helped her? There was no one behind Enishi, or so she thought. An arm appeared from underneath the beam Enishi had been standing on. With a grunt, Hinata pulled herself onto the roof of the collapsed hut, smiling rather sheepishly at Sakura.

"Hinata-chan?" Sakura asked incredulously.

The lady of Lahan nodded. "Sorry it took me so long, Sakura-san," she answered with a small bow. "I had to wait until he wasn't paying attention to cut the nerves in his legs."

"Wait," the other woman said, leaping onto same roof. It shattered beneath the increase in weight, forcing both women to leap for their lives, lest they wanted to get burned alive by the fiery swamp. It wasn't until they were well clear of the devastation that they stopped to talk. "So how did he not fall over right away?"

Hinata smiled sweetly, though Sakura shivered. "His armor held him up," she answered simply. "It's like the shell on a crab. It held him up, even when I cut the nerves in his legs. He didn't notice until he tried to move and ended up unbalancing himself."

Sakura scowled good-naturedly. "So you didn't do this earlier why?"

"I was just looking for the right opening."

The pink-haired kunoichi laughed as she turned glowing green hands on herself, finally having the opportunity to truly treat herself. In less than ten minutes, it was over and Sakura was almost back to peak condition, minus a significant chakra drain. "So now what?" She asked.

Hinata's eyes narrowed. "Now," she replied dangerously, "we go after my husband." Sakura nodded then two kunoichi vanished as one.

Two sliver swords slammed together, ringing as steel met steel, the weapons tangling, clashing, and sparking before whirling apart only to slam together again. The wielders of those blades, Ren and Yoritomo, glared daggers at each other as they fought like a pair of dancers. Tenten, as a weapons specialist herself, was mesmerized by the deadly dance going on in front of her. The two swordsmen never seemed to touch the ground, only float across it, as if the earth was only something to push against.

"You're still as horrible as ever with a blade," Ren spat as he swept aside the other's strike, only to follow up with one of his own.

"While you," Yoritomo shot back, "have only gotten worse." He lunged.

"Oh really?"

The corrupt lord's eyes widened as he realized that he'd stabbed at nothing, his sword piercing only the air. The voice had come from behind him. With a wild yell, the shorter man spun, sword splitting the air, slamming into Ren's onrushing blade, the force of the collision rippling up both men's arms. The gray-haired man grunted, shifted, and pushed, sending Yoritomo tumbling over the ground as Ren leaped into the night sky.

"Ryutsuisen!" he thundered as he fell like a hawk on the still-rolling Yoritomo. No sooner had he come to a stop, than he had to throw himself backwards to avoid Ren's slamming to earth. Where the kodachi had struck, there was a deep furrow in the hard-packed dirt, the blade immovable.

"Now you die!" Yoritomo howled with glee as he rushed in, the larger man trying to free his blade. He ran into a brick wall. Next thing the illegitimate potentate knew, he was flying through the air, with only a memory of the rough sandal tread that had slammed into his face as his only clue as to how that had happened.

"Looks like you need help," Naruto said to the scarred swordsman behind him. Ren gave a huge tug on his weapon, wrenching it free before slamming it into its scabbard.

"Not at all," he answered, "though I won't deny I'm happy you came along when you did."

Tenten caught a flash of a katana in Naruto's hand. "Want to tag team him?"

The samurai shook his head. "No. This is an honorable duel, not one of your dirty shinobi operations. I will beat this usurper in one-on-one combat." Slate eyes glanced sidelong at the blond jounin. "I need no help from an amateur."

To Tenten's surprise, Naruto didn't erupt into one of his tirades like she thought. He nodded, sheathed his katana and stood aside, allowing Ren to step into his place. The blond was at her side a moment later.

"You alright Tenten?" he asked as he took her hand in his own, looking at the bloody bandages that were wrapped around her palm, the souvenir from Yoritomo's blade. He removed the wrappings and looked at the injury. "Not too deep, but you'll need to see Sakura after this or Baa-chan when we get back." The kunoichi felt her face get hot for some reason. This more serious Naruto was new to her, but oddly…not something she didn't like.

A black shape appeared behind Naruto.

"Die damned shinobi!" Yoritomo shouted as his blade plunged for the blonde's back.

"Naru…" that was as far as Tenten got. Before she'd even started speaking, the blond was moving, his left arm sweeping out and around behind him, knocking the blade aside, using the momentum to spin to face Yoritomo, his other fist crashing into the lord's face with a sharp crack that even Ren heard. The lord bounced and rolled down the street like a rag doll before coming to a stop near Aisha's senbon-riddled corpse.

Cold rage radiated from Naruto as he looked down at the quivering lord, who was getting back to his feet, holding what had to be a broken jaw. He didn't move though. He just glared, letting Ren move in and take the initiative, the deposed lord's sword darting and flashing, a silver snake with keen fangs that would gut Yoritomo in a heartbeat.

"Let's get out of the way, Tenten-chan," Naruto said, leaping onto a hut that hadn't caught fire yet. The kunoichi followed, watching the battle raging below as it heated up now that Ren wasn't trying to protect Tenten. A hard landing made them both turn.

"Neji!" Tenten shouted alarmed. The genius was bleeding from his shoulder and looked like he'd come off the loser of a fight with a blender. Blood was pouring from numerous cuts, he was bruised, the tie that held his hair back gone, allowing his brown locks to flow free.

"I'm alright," he said faintly, but he allowed Tenten to get to work on his shoulder as she cleaned and bandaged it. "What's going on?"

"Yoritomo's fighting Ren, the man I met at the pub," Naruto answered, glancing over his shoulder. Neji could see something was on the blonde's mind, but let it go, also noting a change in the jounin's demeanor. There was something different about his eyes and the way he held himself.

'What happened Naruto?' Neji asked silently. The former missing-nin offered no reply, verbal or otherwise.

"What about the blond guy?" Naruto asked.

Neji smiled nastily. "Dead. I pierced his heart with Juken."

"I killed Aisha," Tenten added, nodding to the corpse in the corner of the street.

"And I got Hyotoko," Naruto finished. "That's three of four. Now we just need…"

"Enishi's dead," Sakura interrupted as she and Hinata landed next to Naruto. "Hinata knocked him into the swamp." The two new arrivals took over helping Neji from Tenten, Sakura pressing a green hand to the injured man's shoulder. To everyone's surprise, Hinata did the same.

"I read a few scrolls," She explained, seeing everyone's startled glances. Neji stood, feeling as if he'd climbed out of a warm bath. Sakura stood and dusted herself off.

"You need to take it easy for a week," the medic said seriously. "If you don't that will reopen. I wasn't able to totally heal it, since I'm kinda low on chakra right now and Hinata-chan's not advanced enough."

"Sorry, Neji-niisan," Hinata said, looking away, her old habits coming back to her. The prodigy smiled, putting an arm around her, making her look up.

"It's alright, Hinata-sama," he said with a small smile. "You did your best, that's all we can ask." Hinata returned the smile with a nod, then her eyes sharpened as she noticed Ren and Yoritomo fighting down below. She moved to leap off the roof, but stopped when Naruto held out a hand.

He offered no explanation but shook his head. Hinata seemed to come to a silent understanding and nodded, backing off.

Yoritomo shrieked as Ren's sword bit him, slicing skin through armor. Blood splattered the ground, dripping from the tip of the true lord's kodachi.

"Now this is the end," Ren said confidently, flicking the tip of his blade, sending the excess flying. "Your comrades are dead, Hinata-san is no longer under your control, and I have returned to take by status as Lord of Lahan back. Surrender and you will be spared death. I hear that the Fire Daimyo is merciful."

"Never!" The other spat. "I will fight to the death!" He was bleeding profusely, his limbs slowly growing heavier. Ren had hit something vital. If Yoritomo didn't get treatment soon, he would die. He took a stance that Tenten recognized. "Prepare yourself!"

Ren sighed. "I see. So, Yoritomo, this is how it ends? Fine." His sword vanished back into his scabbard. "Then I shall give you a warrior's death, though you don't deserve it." He took a different stance, sword hand hovering just over the hilt.

"Iaijutsu," Tenten muttered. "This will be the final blow."

Yoritomo lunged as Ren closed his eyes. "Gatoutsu!"

Ren's eyes snapped open, his hand whisking the kodachi from its sheath faster than anyone without a Sharingan could follow. "Kuzuryusen!" Ren grunted as his shoulder was sliced open by Yoritomo's weapon, but the false lord was hit harder, nine different areas on his body exploding in a fountain of blood. Yoritomo was thrown away, blood gently arcing as he few back.

He slammed to earth with an ominous finality. Ren stood up straight, whipped his sword through the air to clear the blood on the blade, then slid the weapon into its sheath right as the katana Yoritomo had been wielding stuck quivering in the road. It had been pulled from his shoulder when Yoritomo had been hit then the fake lord had lost his grip on it and it had sailed into the air.

The man fell to his knees, but didn't feel a thing. All he felt was relief.

"It's finally over," he breathed. A hand made him look up. Naruto was smiling down at him. Ren grinned back, taking his hand, allowing himself to be hauled up. "Thank you Uzumaki," he said. "You have helped me to reclaim what is mine."

"What're you talking about?" Naruto asked, cocking his head like a curious fox.

Ren laughed. "You are dense aren't you? I'm the lord of this village!"

"WHAT!?" Naruto shouted. "But you said that…aren't you supposed to be dead!?"

"You really are an idiot," Sakura sighed. "He survived obviously and hid here in the village looking for the right opportunity."

"No," the lord corrected. "I never hid. I stayed to protect the villagers. I never expected to get my village back."

"Fine," Naruto said with a laugh. "You keep telling yourself that."

"Damn shinobi," Ren growled, but there was no heat to his tone.

"Blockhead samurai," The blond countered just as fast. The two grinned.

The sun peeked over the horizon. It was a new day in Lahan, and the brightening sky looked like it was the first of many more to come.

Two weeks later, Naruto and crew stood at the gates of the estate in Lahan. For the last fortnight, the team had been working tirelessly to extinguish fires, find the missing, tend to the injured, bury the dead, and work to rebuild the ravaged town. It turned out that Yoritomo wasn't all that popular, either in town or among his own house. The moment Ren announced the death of the false lord and that he had returned, the town had gone crazy with glee, and had been working with an almost fanatical furvor ever since.

The only that had been sad to see Yoritomo go was Oda. The little boy had locked himself in his room; refusing to come out, talk with anyone, or even, as far as Team Naruto knew, eat. Ren, however, had been optimistic.

"I wouldn't worry about the kid," he'd said. "I'll get him out of there and turn him into a real samurai. It might take a while, but I'll make it happen." The matter with Hinata had been resolved too. She had asked Ren if she would be required to stay.

The lord had waved it off. "No. You were married to Yoritomo. Yoritomo is dead. You are a widow." He cocked an eyebrow that made sure the shinobi caught the hidden meaning. "Widows are hard to take care of in this day and age. If you want to stay, I certainly won't object, but I think a widow needs her family to take care of her."

Neji and Hinata had both bowed deeply at the remark. So much so that Ren went red. "Please, none of that. It makes me feel proper and I hate proper pomp and circumstance."

"That makes two of us," Naruto muttered.

Now the team of five was getting ready to leave the town and were in the process of saying their final goodbyes to Ren, who was in the silken finery of the lord that looked rather good on him, or so the kunoichi of the team thought.

"It's been fun Ren." Naruto said with a grin, clasping the other man's hand.

"If you ever need help," Ren answered, "don't hesitate to come by."

"We will," Sakura assured.

They turned to leave.

A voice stopped them. "Wait!"

It was Oda. He was standing at the gate next to Ren, breathing as if he had just run all the way from his room.

"What's he doing here?" Tenten asked.

"I went to talk with him," Hinata said with a small smile. "He wouldn't see me so I just said what I wanted through the door and left."

"What'd you say to get the little ice cube to open up?" Naruto asked incredulously.

"That's between me and him, Naruto-kun," Hinata answered. She knelt. Oda ran to her, embracing her, tears welling in his eyes.

"I'm so sorry," he said between sniffles. "I'm so sorry." Hinata hugged him close, whispering something that no one could see or hear. Finally he released her and stood back, eyes shining with unshed tears. "I'm sorry for the way I acted everyone. I…only heard about Hinata-san from my father so…" he seemed unable to finish, too caught up in his own guilt.

"It's alright," Sakura said gently.

"Yeah," Tenten added. "As long as you see the error of your ways."

They looked expectantly at Naruto and Neji. Neither looked very enthusiastic about forgiving the kid. Sakura cracked her knuckles.

Naruto gulped. "Just stay out of trouble kid."

"You did apologize, and that takes more courage than killing men in battle," Neji added. "We'll forgive you."

"Thank you everyone," Oda said, finally smiling.

With that, the group turned for Konoha then leapt away, bounding easily across rooftops and trees, the villagers waving at them. They'd heard and witnessed the tales of the battles that the five shinobi had fought and every man, woman, and child felt indebted to them for saving Lahan from the terror of the Four Corners.

The sun warmed the backs of the shinobi as they left Lahan behind them, heading for their own homes and their own loved ones waiting for them.

LATE! Dammit. I hate it when I'm late. Blame a friend of mine. He got me hooked on Burnout Paradise. Fun game. One of the few racing games I can honestly say I like. Never mind that my flight instructor has dumped a shit ton of new material on me. First flight plans and now I have to memorize an entire new set of checklists for the new plane I'll be flying. Anyhow, hope you enjoyed the chapter. See you next time!

Ryuusei Juken (Flowing Water Gentle Fist): I got the idea from History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. Hilarious anime and manga, you should totally go watch/read it. Neji shrinks the territory his Juken covers to allow him to react with split-second timing. The jutsu thus far is incomplete.

Kuzuryusen (Nine-headed Dragon Strike): I stole this one directly from Rurouni Kenshin. Kenshin and Seijuro Hiko both use this technique. It's a lunge that's so fast that it's impossible to dodge and it hits every striking point in kenjutsu almost simultaniously.

Gatoutsu: Another technique taken straight from Rurouni Kenshin. Sadly, I wasn't able to find a translation. It's Saito Hajime's technique, a vicious high-speed stab with multiple applications, including using it with bare fists. I thought it would be a good techniuqe for Yoritomo.